Today’s Literacy Headlines

Schools looking to shore up students’ skills after pandemic-related shutdowns turn to summer school and enrichment programs — but there’s no guarantee kids will attend or that gains will last into fall and beyond.

If your district isn’t having an “uh oh” moment around reading instruction, it probably should be. Educators across the country are experiencing a collective awakening about literacy instruction, thanks to a recent tsunami of national media attention. Alarm bells are ringing—as they should be—because we’ve gotten some big things wrong: Research has documented what works to get kids to read, yet those evidence-based reading practices appear to be missing from most classrooms. Systemic failures have left educators overwhelmingly unaware of the research on how kids learn to read. Many teacher-preparation programs lack effective reading training, something educators rightly lament once they get to the classroom. On personal blogs and social media, teachers often write of learning essential reading research years into their careers, with powerful expressions of dismay and betrayal that they weren’t taught sooner. Others express anger. The lack of knowledge about the science of reading doesn’t just affect teachers. It’s perfectly possible to become a principal or even a district curriculum leader without first learning the key research. In fact, this was true for us.

The colors, the collages, the seminal work. Eric Carle’s impact on children’s literature is immeasurable, and his death this week left readers and colleagues mourning the loss while celebrating the life of The Very Hungry Caterpillar creator. “Heaven just got more colorful,” children’s book author and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds tweeted. “Eric Carle, 91, made his mark, splashing bravely & inspiring those around him to do the same.” Carle died Sunday, May 23, surrounded by his family at his summer studio in Northampton, MA. The Carle family announced his death on ericcarle.art, writing: “In the light of the moon, holding on to a good star, a painter of rainbows is now traveling across the night sky.”

Principal Margot Zahner’s vision for summer enrichment at Waterman Elementary School in Harrisonburg, Virginia, grows clearer every week. She imagines students reading underneath the two silver maple trees that flank the entrance of the building, while another group studies the life cycle of plants and insects in a nearby community garden and a third prepares a play to be performed before their parents on a soon-to-be-built stage. “We have been doing a lot of work on screens for such a long time,” Zahner said. “We want to counterbalance that with joy and discovery in our garden through hands-on science and exploration outside. We learn so much by being active and engaged in play.” But, she noted, this year’s summer school program will focus on more than just fun. Zahner and other administrators in her district hope it will chip away at the isolation children have experienced as well as the learning loss they suffered during the shutdowns: Harrisonburg City Public Schools were closed to most students for nearly a year before opening up, at least in part, in late March.

In Tulsa, Okla., 100 years ago this month, 35 square blocks of homes, churches and schools — along with a storied business district known as Black Wall Street — had been systematically torched and reduced to ash. By creating “Opal’s Greenwood Oasis” and “Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre” for young people, the authors of two new picture books have reminded us that many who survived the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 were children at the time. In “Unspeakable,” the acclaimed children’s author Carole Boston Weatherford continues the exploration of African-American history. Her forebears lived through the period of white supremacist terrorism of which Tulsa was but one example. Weatherford deals directly with the racist tenets of segregation. The award-winning illustrator Floyd Cooper was born and raised in Tulsa, where none of his teachers ever mentioned the massacre. He learned of it at a grandfather’s knee.

Eric Carle’s picture books were often about insects. Spiders, lady bugs, crickets and of course, that famous caterpillar, all as colorful and friendly as Carle himself. The Very Hungry Caterpillar — probably Carle’s best-known work — came out in 1969 and became one of the bestselling children’s books of all time. Over the course of his career, Carle illustrated more than 70 books for kids. He didn’t get started on that path until he was nearly 40, but he found great inspiration in his own childhood. Born in Syracuse, N.Y., Carle remembered an early life filled with art, light and walking through nature holding his father’s hand. Carle, who first illustrated the 1967 children’s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by his friend Bill Martin Jr., wanted The Very Hungry Caterpillar to serve as a literary cocoon for children getting ready for kindergarten. As little kids prepare to leave the warmth and safety of home for school, they’re meant to identify with beautiful, soaring butterflies. “I think it is a book of hope,” Carle said in a commemorative video released by Penguin Random House in 2019. Then 89 and retired at his Florida home, he was wearing black suspenders and a blue shirt matching his lively eyes. “Children need hope. You, little insignificant caterpillar, can grow up into a beautiful butterfly and fly into the world with your talent. Will I ever be able to do that? Yes, you will. I think that is the appeal of that book.

When a fictional caterpillar chomps through one apple, two pears, three plums, four strawberries, five oranges, one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake and one slice of watermelon, it might get a stomach ache. But it might also become the star of one of the best-selling children’s books of all time. Eric Carle, the artist and author who created that creature in his book “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” a tale that has charmed generations of children and parents alike, died on Sunday at his summer studio in Northampton, Mass. He was 91. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” Mr. Carle’s best-known book, has sold more than 55 million copies around the world since it was first published in 1969, its mere 224 words translated into more than 70 languages. It is one of more than 70 books that Mr. Carle published over his career. Mr. Carle’s career as a children’s book author took off in his late 30s, and he made his name tapping into his inner child. Describing himself as a “picture writer,” Mr. Carle detailed much of his artistic process on his website.

Lois Ehlert, whose cut-and-paste shapes and vibrant hues in books including “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” put her among the most popular illustrators of books for preschoolers of the late 20th century, has died. She was 86. In 1989’s “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,” Ehlert created the hyper-simple brown-and-green coconut tree and the multicolored capital letters who try to gather at the top of it, threatening to bring it tumbling to the ground as the text repeats, “Chicka chicka boom boom! Will there be enough room?” The book sold more than 12 million copies. She worked primarily by cutting out shapes and pasting them into collages, much like the preschoolers who were her primary audience. In 1990, she was given a Caldecott Honor as the author and illustrator of “Color Zoo,” which uses basic triangles, rectangles, squares and circles to create images of animals in oversaturated oranges, purples and greens. Its only words are the names of the shapes and creatures themselves.

Students’ understanding of a story is partially dependent on their ability to understand and picture the moment. Pairing primary sources with literature can help students explore a story using a unique, real-world perspective that they may not otherwise have. Compelling primary sources help students contextualize elements of a story to better understand and relate to it. A photograph of an event can help students visualize a setting. Listening to a song only referenced in the text might immerse a reader in a scene. Words written by those in a movement may give voice to a character. There may also be learning moments where the children’s literature leads to greater understanding of primary sources. A story, fictional or true, can humanize a topic that feels more distant when interacting with an item from long ago. In these cases, beginning with the story to build contextual knowledge may increase student engagement in analyzing primary sources.

The Tulsa Race Massacre—one of the worst acts of racist violence in American history—has long been written out of history. In advance of the 100th anniversary, here are books and teaching resources that shed light on the event.

Fewer than 1 in 4 high school seniors and a little more than a third of 4th and 8th graders performed proficiently in science in 2019, according to national test results out this week. The results are the latest from the National Assessment of Educational Progress in science. Since the assessment, known as “the nation’s report card,” was last given in science in 2015, 4th graders’ performance has declined overall, while average scores have been flat for students in grades 8 and 12. Only a little more than a third of 4th graders could consistently explain concepts such as how forces change motion, how environmental changes can affect the growth and survival of animals or plants, and how temperature affects the state of matter. And more than 40 percent of high school seniors could not consistently describe and explain things like the structure of atoms and molecules or design and critique scientific experiments and observational studies.

Self-regulated learning, or SRL, is much more than just learning strategies to regulate emotions. It also taps into the often-missing component of teaching and learning, the metacognitive aspects of learning, or learning how to learn for different contexts. SRL is knowing how to learn and being aware of your progression of learning toward specific goals. In the classroom, explicit direct instruction of SRL means the students are aware that they are learning study strategies and how to learn. They learn which strategies are best for different contexts and the reasoning for those benefits. Two quick tips for explicit direct teaching of SRL: explain the usefulness and importance of self-regulated learning skills to students; and support students to identify when and where they can use self-regulated learning skills.

Imagine, if you will, the inner life of a student who’s just returned to the classroom after a year of remote learning. The pandemic has made physical isolation routine, and while being back in school is a welcome change, it’s also disorienting. These challenges, whether related to racial injustice, family struggles, difficulty accessing online learning, or simply the sadness of being separated from peers, weigh heavily on students and educators as they reintegrate into the school environment. For schools, it’s a critically important time to adopt strategies that consider students’ emotional well-being and help them achieve social connectedness and belonging. At the same time, however, schools also need to mitigate pandemic-related interruptions in learning and continue to demonstrate academic growth. School leaders may feel they’re in a bind: Do they focus on social emotional learning or academic rigor? We feel that this is a false choice. It’s not an either/or proposition—it’s both/and. We can’t uncouple social and emotional learning from academics, because they are deeply intertwined.